Butch Warren was one of the most ubiquitous and irreplaceable voices of the hard bop era, yet not many people can quite place the name. He was the house bassist for Blue Note records in the late 50s and early 60s. His deep and thumping bounce helped catapult Herbie Hancock into stardom on his 60s hit, “Watermelon Man.” He was bassist on Kenny Dorham’s famous “Blue Bossa,” the jazz 101 standard that still stands the test of time.

Butch Warren performed and recorded on key historical dates with Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Hank Mobley, Stanley Turrentine, Jackie MacLean and many, many others. His passing on October 5, 2013, signals the ending of a golden era of jazz musicians that created and shaped the vocabulary that we use even today.